Friday, October 17, 2008

A Black-Tie Event

I have always had a warm spot in my heart for penguins, which have to be the strangest of all birds. Unfortunately they have begun appearing in places where they shouldn’t be and where they can’t survive. Just like with beached whales, there are penguin lovers out there who want to help them get back home.

Recently Magellanic penguins have been showing up on the balmy beaches of Brazil, way outside their normal comfort zone. These birds are native to Patagonia and tend to migrate somewhat north during their summer following fish that travel with the warm waters. But this year the birds went much further north because of warmer than usual ocean currents.

Returning this latest group of birds to Patagonia was a 2-step process. They were first taken by boat to Brazil’s southern border with Argentina. There they were released into the open water in the hope they would be carried back to Patagonia on the ocean currents.

Is this just one more manifestation of global warming? I wonder about the long-term future of these birds if indeed all of Antarctica melts one day. Will they then be on the endangered species list? Or will they evolve as humans must have to deal with climatic changes? Are there still people out there denying that global warming exists?